Who stopped eating all the pies? Sales falling at Greggs

NORTH-East baker Greggs has warned that profits are likely to be lower than expected this year after reporting falling sales.

The chain, which has branches across Hartlepool and East Durham, said like-for-like sales, which exclude newly-opened outlets, were down 4.4 per cent so far this year.

The company blamed bad weather and “under pressure” consumers, and said it did not expect market conditions to improve in the short term.

“Despite good cost control, overall profits have been affected in the first quarter of the year and are behind our plan,” Greggs said in a statement.

“Although we are only four months into the year, based on current own shop like-for-like performance, we believe that profits for the year are likely to be slightly below the lower end of the range of market expectations.”